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Editor’s Note: In this article the author has prepared the first and what may well become the only authentic history of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. In it he has portrayed, courageously, an unbiased record of vicissitudes encountered by a group of earnest, forwardthinking pcrsons, during a period of almost two decades, while attempting to establish an approved examining board to determine the competence of physicians specializing in proctology.
Unlike other specialties, proctology has not shared equally in the esteem of the medical profession, and there is no better evidence of the truth of this statement than the facts revealed by Dr. Ault. He was able to show that, despite adverse circumstances, the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery was established finally, and this is proof of the commendable zeal of its protagonists.
What he did not reveal is the fact that there is still room for improvement in graduate and undergraduate training in proctology, and that any hope of amelioration can only come about by emancipation of presentday teachings and practices in proctology from the persistent prejudices and notions embedded in the minds of purblind persons on the faculties of medical institutions to whom positions of eminence have been entrusted.
Prepared in lieu of a presidential address for the annual meeting of the American Proctologic Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 14 to 16, 1965.
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Ault, G.W. A brief history of the American board of colon and rectal surgery. Dis Colon Rectum 9, 149–158 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02616970
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02616970